Begtse- Tibetan GodDeity"Lord of War"

The War Spirit of the Steppes

Before Tibetan lamas ever set foot in Mongolia, Begtse ruled the grasslands as a war god. Nomadic warriors called on him before raids and offered him blood after victories. His name meant "Hidden Coat of Mail," and the Mongols imagined him as they imagined their fiercest selves: red-bodied, copper-armored, teeth sunk into a human heart, a sword raised in one fist and torn lungs clutched in the other. He stood on the bodies of the slain. Flames roared behind him. Warriors who lived and died on horseback loved him for it.

The Road to Mongolia

In 1578, the Third Dalai Lama, Sonam Gyatso, rode east toward Mongolia at the invitation of Altan Khan. The khan wanted Buddhist teachings for his people. Begtse did not.

As the Dalai Lama's party neared Mongolian territory, the war god rose up before them. He was enormous and red, armored in copper, backed by an army of warrior spirits that blackened the steppe. He meant to turn the monks back and keep Mongolia for the old gods.

Sonam Gyatso did not flee. He raised his hand in the gesture of fearlessness and revealed his true nature: an emanation of Avalokiteshvara, the bodhisattva of compassion. According to Nebesky-Wojkowitz's account, the effect was immediate. Begtse's rage broke. The warrior spirits scattered. The war god knelt, took vows to protect the dharma rather than destroy its carriers, and let the Dalai Lama pass.

Altan Khan converted. Mongolia followed. And the war spirit who had blackened the steppe became a guardian of the religion that had conquered him.

The Brother and Sister

Begtse did not serve alone. His sister Rigpai Lhamo took the same vows and the same wrathful form. Tibetan texts call them the lcam sring, the "brother-sister pair," and depict them side by side: he with his sword and stolen heart, she with her own weapons bared. Twenty-nine war deities attend them. Together they form a complete circle of martial protection around the teachings they once opposed.

Their bond is the oldest thing about Begtse's cult. It predates his conversion and survived it. Whatever the lamas made of the war god, the sister came too.